Current Calls to Action

Herbal Mutual Aid Directory – Hurricane Helene

[bit.ly/herbal-mutual-aid-directory]

We have built an Herbal Mutual Aid Directory to support relief efforts and to take some of the pressure off of folks on the ground.

This directory is intended to highlight mutual aid groups that are offering the following services:

  • Herbal Collection Points (receiving herbal donations for further redistribution)
  • Free Herbal Clinics (open to the Public)
  • Self-Care Dispensaries (open to the Public)
  • Mutual Aid Medicine Making (making medicine for communities in need)

If you would like to submit your project to the directory, please complete this form.

Mobile Herbal Clinic Calais

[mobileherbalclinic.org]

The Mobile Herbal Clinic Calais is a dedicated mobile clinic that takes place in Calais and Dunkirk in Northern France every month. Since October 2019, they have supported more than 4335 refugees living in the region.

Ukraine Herbal Solidarity

[solidarityapothecary.org]

Ukraine Herbal Solidarity is a grassroots response to the invasion of Ukraine. It is still in its formative stages. Solidarity Apothecary are organising with No Borders Warsaw, Operation Solidarity and others on the ground across Europe. The project’s aspirational aims are to support frontline organisers responding to the invasion; to organise a mobile herbal clinic on the Ukrainian border; to provide herbal first aid tools to anarchist and anti-fascist fighting units in Ukraine (such as wound spray, bruise ointment etc); to connect evacuated refugees with a network of herbalists that can offer support where they are. For more information, please visit this page.

Ukraine Humanitarian Support – GA Society

[ga-society.org]

The Society for Medicinal Plants and Natural Product Research (aka GA), through a long standing partnership with the Ukrainian Polish Foundation for the Development of Medicine is providing essential supports to Ukrainian refugees in Poland including sending essential medicines and supporting hospital staff; the establishment of a kindergarten class, nursery and child support rooms; and the providing of employment for Ukrainian mothers.  For more details, please visit the GA society’s call for humantarian aid.  

Herbal Action + Aid Organizations

Solidarity Apothecary

[solidarityapothecary.org]

The mission of the Solidarity Apothecary is to materially support revolutionary struggles and communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy, self-defence and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.  Solidarity Apothecary is currently running projects supporting people harmed by state violence, including folks in prison; supporting refugees with the Herbalists without Borders Calais-UK Project in northern France; and recently organizing Ukraine herbal solidarity. 

Herbalists Without Borders

[hwbglobal.org]

​Herbalists Without Borders is a nonprofit local to global network of volunteers devoted to providing compassionate care to communities and countries in need impacted by natural disasters, violent conflicts, poverty, trauma and other access barriers to health and wellness.

While Herbalists Without Borders does not directly run their own clinics, they provide fiscal sponsorship and resources for groups who do. 

Earlier Calls to Action

Bayou Bridge Pipeline Resistance/ L’eau est la vie Camp

“Here in the bayous of Louisiana, our water and way of life is under threat, and we need your support. Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the very same company behind the notorious Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) , is trying to build a 162 mile crude oil pipeline across Louisiana called the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP). BBP will pollute our water, crossing an astounding 700 bodies of water including Bayou LaFourche, a critical reservoir that supplies the United Houma Nation and 300,000 Louisiana residents with clean, safe drinking water. …If our leaders won’t stand up to stop this pipeline and protect our water, then we the people of Louisiana will. We are building the L’eau Est La Vie camp to protect our water and our way of life from the Bayou Bridge pipeline.

Hurricane Florence Herbal Aid

[Herbal Accessibility Project]

“The Charlotte Herbal Accessibility Project, alongside volunteers and collaborators will be traveling to the coast of NC and cities along the way (Charlotte included) that are housing evacuees in order to provide free herbal care. We will focus our care on centers that are housing those who have lost their homes or are currently unable to return, while also traveling into neighborhoods and other community centers. We will be bringing tea blends (depending on the setting, making tea to distribute), but will be focused on portable easy-to-take medicines like tinctures and salves. These tincture/tea blends will focus on helping to manage stress, regulate sleep cycles, ease anxiety, tension and worrying and to comfort them during these trying times, while also helping to build immunity, nourish the nervous system and regulate digestion (all systems that can be greatly affected during times of intense stress and grief). Salves will be focused on scrape/wound care, bacterial issues that may have been caused due to excess moisture (think not having rain boots and getting your socks and shoes soggy all day long), along with general care of moisturizing and hydration. We will also be providing more specific care depending on the situation/person etc., and we will be bringing a small amount of snacks and supplies, though our focus is on herbal medicines.”  Click here for more details and wish lists.

J-20 Defendants

[medicinecountyherbs@gmail.com

Though the first 6 defendants were cleared of all charges on December 21st, there are still many more cases coming up in the New Year.  Herbalista stands in solidarity with the J-20 Defendants and our right to assemble and voice our dissent.

[Reposted from Janet Kent via Facebook]

“On January 20, 2017, thousands of people took to the streets in Washington DC to protest the inauguration of a racist, sexist lout. Of this number, 200 were corralled into an enclosed area and arrested. These 200 include people from all walks of life: teachers, photographers, journalists, medics. They now face felony charges for attending a protest and face up to 80 years in prison.

The first group of defendants are currently going to trial. The prosecution has already admitted that they have no evidence that these individuals committed any crime. They hope to secure convictions for anyone present at the protest, regardless of evidence of wrong doing.

Now remember that the current head of the “Department of Justice” is one Jeff Sessions. The man who sought criminal convictions for civil rights activists. Who was denied a judgeship due to his history of racist comments. This man and his department are attempting to set a precedent to criminalize dissent. This is an important move towards authoritarian control. Pay attention.”

For herbalists and medicine makers– The Hawthorn Community Herb Collective is collected herbal medicine and supplements for the defendants and their support teams.

 

Water Protectors

[medichealercouncil.com]

The camps have since been cleared and in June the pipeline was turned on but there is still much to do.  Here is a note from the Standing Rock Medic + Healer Council. They continue to do important work and could use our support.

Greetings relations,

We greet you with heavy hearts, yet with our heads held high. As we all move forward from the destruction of the camps, the Medic and Healer Council is looking forward, and we see much to be hopeful about.

Over the last year of the #NODAPL resistance camps and in the face of historic police violence, our medics and the huge community supporting us has had the humble honor of serving as a safety net for the tens of thousands of people from the hundreds of nations who came to the banks of Mni Sose to pray and lay their bodies and freedom on the line for the water and future generations.

With the evictions of the Oceti, Sicangu, Sacred Stone and Seventh Generation camps, our most acute reasons for existing have come to an end. We continue to muster resources in the four directions to try and help our protectors through efforts such as the “Healing the Waters Within” project.

We also are working to redistribute our remaining supplies to provide support for ongoing indigenous lead resistances and earnest fights to protect the waters across Turtle Island. We will also be investing in the creation of the Mni Wiconi Clinic in Fort Yates to focus on providing integrated care that strives to decolonize medical care as well as provide care with dignity. You can continue to support that project with your donations to ensure that access to decolonized healthcare remains in place for the Standing Rock Reservation community, just as it was provided during the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance encampment by our council.

We thank you for your support and want to assure that as we return to the four directions, we will continue to find our ways to the frontlines to lend our care and support.
#MniWiconi #BlackSnakeKillers #WaterProtectors #FrontlinesAreEverywhere

Herbalista Actions

Refugee Support – Calais

February 2020

Lorna offered a training in London for the Herbalists without Borders Calais-UK group, sharing foot care skills with the team.  

Summer 2016

Our world is experiencing a crises of displaced persons unlike we have ever known.   People driven from their homes by war and persecution are then finding their way blocked by closed borders.  In Calais, France over 6,000 refugees lived in a shanty town of tarps and scrap metal known as “the Jungle”.  These refugees are from all over— not only from Syria, but from the Sudan, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, and Pakistan.  The recent clearing of the camp, by way of demolition and fire, resulted in missing children and deepens the crises.

Thanks to your support, Herbalista traveled to Calais twice during the summer of 2016 to provide foot care to refugees at the first aid station in the ” Jungle” refugee camp along with other herbalists, doctors, nurses, and emergency workers. 

Apollo House

Winter 2016

In December of 2016 a group of Dublin based housing activists and artists began a campaign called Home Sweet Home.”  They occupied an empty building in downtown Dublin called the Apollo House and transformed it into a temporary shelter, providing a safe place for those who had been sleeping rough on the streets for the holiday season.  Thanks to generous donations we were able to build and supply two self-care stations in the Apollo house as well as help form a wellness program,  offering rotating massage, physical therapy, herbal support, and foot care services for both residents and volunteer staff.

Standing Rock

Fall 2016

On November 14th, 2016, the Herb Bus traveled to North Dakota to provide medical and logistical support to the protest camp at Standing Rock.  We witnessed the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and many allies courageously protecting both the water and their rights as a sovereign nation.  Thank you to all the folks who contributed resources for us to make this trip and for those who continue to fight to protect the land and her people.